CONTEMPORARY ART IN CONTEXT

ERIDAN  MULTIDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIVE DUO

Artist duo Eri King and Daniel Greer (Eridan). 

King and Greer consider their collaborative approach as a valuable reflective tool in which they bounce ideas off one another until they achieve clarity. They often work on two similar pieces at the same time, passing them back and forth, reinforcing the idea of duality in their work. The series Geometric Studies is a prime example of this shared work method. Drawing is a foundation of both artists’ work. Each Geometric Study is based on Euclidean geometry. Engaged simultaneously on works bounded by the same visual framework of a geometric grid created a starting point to explore progressive drawing. In the true spirit of conceptualism—where the concept of an artwork is considered as important, if not more important, than the finished work—the artists believe that such cross-working allows for sincere creative inspiration minus ego or ownership.

In 2017, during a residency in Japan, Eridan authored a manifesto on How to Work Better Together. It has ten tenets that encourage mindfulness for collaborative settings and everyday circumstances.

Eridan, How to Work Better Together, 2021. Graphite on paper, 18 x 12" (46 x 30 cm). Images courtesy of the artists. Photography by Daniel Greer.

Artists throughout history have collaborated , although probably not in the same conceptual spirit as Eridan. In the traditional Western artist-studio-with-apprentices system, major artists would paint the main subject of the work, leaving the finishing of background and details to studio assistants. Surrealist artists in the early twentieth century created the Exquisite Corpse activity, in which each artist contributes to the overall work as it is passed around.

Eri King was born in Kagoshima, Japan. She received a BFA in studio art and art history at the University of Las Vegas, and an MFA in painting at Hunter College. Daniel Greer received a BA in New Media: Film from Fairfield University in 2010. Both he and King have begun to explore music and sound as backdrops for their works.

Eridan, Geometric Study #28, 2020. Acrylic on canvas, 35 x 25" (89 x 63.5 cm).

ARTIST Q&A
What are some of the biggest influences on your work?
Eridan: We draw inspiration from the everyday, responding to the banal and the unnoticed, both in its quietude and grandness. Zen Buddhism and collaboration are the foundations of our conceptual and creative practice. Art and life are inextricably linked, so when we practice these fundamental beliefs, it translates into how we navigate the studio and our daily rituals. Empowered by the vast possibilities of artmaking, we operate under the premise that there are no bounds to any particular concept, medium, style, scale, process, subject, composition, material, and so on.

What is a typical workday like for you?
E: We both work full-time in the art industry, which is separate yet tied to our individual and shared creative practices. In the same way one needs to show up to a job every day, we enforce the same kind of schedule for the studio.

Projects dictate our pace and attention, and we always have numerous works in progress. We enjoy jumping around various modes of making if we have the flexibility to, unless we need to focus on a deadline for a specific project. When preparing for exhibitions or commissions, the work can be equally logistic and creative, or a hybridized form. The more opportunities we have, the more we recognize that pursuing a career in artmaking requires more than just making. We also play music, so we may split our time sending out emails and then playing music and painting.

Can you describe your process for finding and choosing materials?
E: We draw a lot of inspiration from the content and material that participate in our daily lives; these are usually the objects and concepts that are so abundant or common that they can hide in plain sight. Utilizing manufactured products and visual culture allows us to work off the subject’s historical, cultural, and social context. We source a lot of our art materials from the same stores we might buy products for our home, or that we even find directly on the sidewalks of New York City. Materials such as food products, plastic goods, “trash,” stock imagery, and shower curtains are examples of mediums we’ve activated in our mixed-media assemblages.

How do your works connect the ideas of planned obsolescence and everyday life?
E: Planned obsolescence is one of the more sinister policies that shape consumer culture. Not only does it force a consumer into quicker repeat purchases of inferior products, but it also reinforces reliance on a flawed system that drives the value of human labor to a minimum. Our artworks intervene in this process by examining value such as trash or disposable single-use materials and using repetitive, laborious processes as a means to illuminate value, encourage creativity, and meditate on our consumer behaviors.

We are in a pivotal moment in human history where our collective actions determine our planet’s future. We feel the urgency to recognize how we relate to the things surrounding us and manifest our actions into more significant implications. We realize that art has the power to deliver a message that is different than didactic information. We find strength in aesthetics and the ambiguity to challenge our viewers in critical thinking and to decipher the visual and symbolic language. By creating a unique frame into the familiar, we hope to illuminate and develop compelling ways to see how these objects and circumstances exist in our everyday lives.

How do you both share the creation of a work of art?
E: The loss of individual authorship is a fundamental aspect of collaboration and an essential step in moving forward. The freedom comes along with the ego relinquishing things like ownership and attachments, and the rewards are far greater than the loss. Trust and respect play critical roles in letting that process happen, and it turns the vulnerability of artmaking into a strength. In terms of the physical process, we often work on two things at a time, handing them back and forth as we progress. It’s also a conceptual strategy that refers to our partnership and engages the concept of nondualism; that two can be one and two and neither and both.

DISCUSSION
Begin by showing Eridan’s Geometric Study #28. Ask students to guess how many artists were involved in creating it. After some discussion, reveal that it was created by two artists working collaboratively. Next, ask students to provide examples of collaborations that result in something greater than what one individual could accomplish. Introduce additional examples of collaborative art, and ask students to imagine what each artist in the group might have contributed.

STUDIO EXPERIENCES

• Work with the artists at your table or nearby to create a collaborative artwork. Start working independently, then pass your artwork to the person on your right every five to ten minutes. Repeat until the class ends or the paper is filled.
• Collaborate with one or two partners to create a work of art that suggests your shared interests. Have each team member write a list of topics they find interesting, then circle any items that match and use them to inspire your artwork.
• Label different areas of the art room with themes that you or your peers would like to respond to with art. Each student should then stand near the theme they find most interesting. Now you have formed your collaborative teams! Brainstorm and select media, materials, and processes to explore, then create a collaborative artwork

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Written by Karl Cole, Art Historian and Curator of Images at Davis Publications, and Robb Sandagata, Digital Curriculum Director and Editor at Davis Publications. kcole@davisart.com